King Burials in Frankton K. of P. I.O.O.F. Cemetery

Located the following burials in the Knights of Pythias International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery in Frankton, Madison County, Indiana from the book K of P I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Lafayette Township, Madison County, Indiana by Haroldine Zook, typed by Nancy Horn, 1995.  Some of these I know are definitely related to my King family, others will need to be researched.  These papers were part of my paper monster I've been trying to conquer.  Believe that I found the book in the Elwood Indiana Public Library.

page 14 -

King, Dollie A. 1889-1961
King, Clarence 1884-1971

page 24 -

King, Calvin 1840-1923
King, Jane 1858-1937

Calvin was the husband of Orinda J. King (1849-1879), my first cousin 4 times removed, daughter of George Washington King and Elizabeth Howard.  After her death, he married Jane.  Calvin is not a known relation.

page 26 -

King, Essie 1888-1979
King, Raymond 1884-1970
King, Gerald 6/27/1906 - 2/24/1913

page 30 -

King, Cleo F. 1894-19__ md. 6/18/1913
King, Hoy H. 1891-1970

Hoy Hubert King (1891-1970) was my first cousin 3 times removed, the son of David King and Litha May (see below).

King, Rosa M. 1886-1976
King, D. Victor 1882-1944
King, Litha A. 1857-1934
King, David 1854-1914

David King (1854-1914) was my 2nd-great granduncle, the son of Daniel King and Elizabeth Shaw.  His wife was Litha Ann May (1857-1934).  Their son David Victor King (1882-1944) and his wife Rosa M. Etchison are buried with them.

page 59

King, Lenna J. 1901-12/20/1990 md. 12/10/1921
King, Cecil P. 1900-1976

Snowed In : Tackling The Paper Pile

 

With the weather outside being a frightful -14 degrees with a -40 degree wind chill, going to work yesterday and today was not in the cards.  So, after snow blowing to make sure we could get out if we needed to, I decided to work on one of my genealogy goals for 2014 : tackling the paper pile.

I have a bad habit of making photocopies at libraries, courthouses, etc. and then letting them sit around and not getting them digitized or the data input into my genealogy database.  Because of this, I'm sure I've paid twice for information that I already had or perhaps have worked on a problem that the solution was available in the stacks of paper.

I also want to try to get this family information organized between my Rootsmagic database and my online Ancestry.com tree.  I would hate for some of this information to not be shared with others.  I'm at the age where I'm starting to realize my own mortality, and don't want to not pass on what I've found.

I spent most of yesterday and today scanning the files, working through the piles that had been previously sorted by maternal, paternal and other lines.  Slowly, but surely, my intention is to post the information to my blog, add it to the Ancestry tree, and then dispose of the paper.  I'm getting tired of being a packrat for paper.  Unless the document is an official copy of a birth certificate, I don't see the need to keep a copy. 

Grandpa John Metzner was shot

Found an interesting tidbit while searching through old newspapers, the fact that in 1872 my grandpa John Metzner was shot. 



Portland Commercial, Portland, Indiana, May 2, 1872, page 2

The case of the State vs. John A. Bergman for shooting John Metzner was tried last week.  The Jury returned a verdict of guilty of an assault and battery, and accordingly fined him $26.

Question is, which grandpa John?  Was it my 2nd-great grandfather John Adam Metzner (1840-1895), or his father John Metzner (1805-1888)?  Will have to go to the Jay County courthouse to sort this out, though I am leaning on the victim being the younger John, a Civil War veteran.  However, there is the fact that he was often referred to by his middle name "Adam", and the article clearly states the victim was John.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to find any other mention of the incident in the local newspapers that have survived.

Who was John A. Bergman?  I believe he was the husband of Caroline H. Metzner, daughter of John (b. 1805).  This would mean that Mr. Bergman shot either his brother-in-law or his father-in-law.  Either way, this must have made for an interesting family dynamic

Caroline Metzner (b. 1852) and John A. Burgman were married March 11, 1869 in Jay County, Indiana.  The image of their marriage license was located at Familysearch.  Indexed as Burgman, his surname is spelled both Bergman and Burgman in the same document.



"Indiana, Marriages, 1811-1959," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V6RG-H1P : accessed 04 Jan 2014), John A Burgman and Caroline Metzner, 1869.

In the 1870 census, I've located John and Caroline (Metzner) Bergman living in Bearcreek Township, Jay County, Indiana, with their 5 month old son, George W.  John A. Bergman was working in a saw mill.  Bearcreek Township is where several Metzner families lived.

 I know that Caroline married again in Jay County, Indiana on January 1, 1874 to James W. Huston, and that they had a daughter, Della.  So John and Caroline must have divorced sometime between 1870 and 1874 in Jay County, another avenue for me to research.  A good guess would be that the divorce occurred shortly after he shot John Metzner.

By the 1880 census, John A. Bergman was listed as a 38 year old divorced male living in the village of Bellfountaine, Noble Township, Jay County, Indiana, still listed as a sawmill worker.  I've found no other record other than the 1870 census for son George W. Bergman.  A search of Mt. Zion cemetery records at FindAGrave did not locate a memorial.

Once the weather improves and I can get up to Jay County, will definitely be researching this court case to see what all of the particulars were.  Sounds like an interesting family feud.